Why did Wonderboy struggle to pull the trigger?

[Touch of Death]

Wonderboy is arguably the best striker in the UFC and had 50 minutes to fight a mostly a stationary Woodley who pretty much had his back to the fence for at least a 40 minutes duration.

There were many times where Wonderboy had Woodley in his line of sight but he never pulled the trigger, instead he got outstruck both fights.

I get that Woodley has the threat of a TD, and is explosive and has serious power but for a great striker like Wonderboy, it was surprising to see him struggle to even trouble Woodley. He landed a nice headkick on Woodley in the second fight but it landed only partially, other than that he had limited success.

IMO, I thought Wonderboy won the fight even as a Woodley fan purely based on inactivity. But overall, Wonderboy got knocked down I think around 7 times in both encounters and nearly got finished in the first fight. IMO I don't think the last round was a 10-8 in the rematch and Wonderboy was no way near to getting finished.

Thoughts on Wonderboy's limited success?

 

[Threetrees]

Because I think Woodley's feints and threats were way more important to that fight than people realize. Woodley both refused to play Wonderboy's game, and gave him nothing at all to counter. Wonderboy has his own limitations and decided he would patiently wait for Woodley to get frustrated and charge him, but it rarely. And when it did Woodley actually generated the best offense over the span of 50 minutes. And Wonderboy had no answer but survival either time.

Two counter fighters makes for an ugly, ugly matchup. Wonderboy lacked the confidence to commit to any real offense against Woodley (the reverse is true, but less so) and for some reason decided in this second fight that if he just landed at a slightly higher clip he'd win SOLEY on the virtue of moving forward.

What we learned from this fight is that Tyron is the more skilled fighter, even if it's only by a bit. Wonderboy is the limited one here. But Tyron takes off large stretches of the bout, and Wonderboy knows how to point fight so we get close contests between the two of them.

Frankly I don't want to see them ever fight each other again.

 

[trident]

 

[Emjay]

Because the end of the 5th round

 

[AminoAcid]

Woodley had his attention.

WB nearly got finished multiple times throughout the first fight and he just didn't want any of that. He thought if he could stay on the outside and pick him apart without getting reckless he could outpoint him to a decision, and that is exactly what he tried to do.

 

[dildos]

well if he unleashed on woodley right from the start and beat the shit out of him, he would have been racist. so good guy thompson didnt be racist.

you may say that not being racist, ultimately lead to wonderboy not winning the title.

 

[Threetrees]

well if he unleashed on woodley right from the start and beat the shit out of him, he would have been racist. so good guy thompson didnt be racist.

you may say that not being racist, ultimately lead to wonderboy not winning the title.

 

[dildos]

lol by the way.

shittest fight ever.

fucking terrible.

boo urns.

 

[helltoupee]

I can understand the hesitancy given the TD threat and Woodley's refusal to lead (WB being a counter striker).

Where I was really confused was after Woodley got the TD (round 3 I think) and WB got back up after a couple minutes - Woodley looked visibly exhausted and there was still a minute or two left - WB should've capitalized, instead they both stood there, Woodley with his back against the cage, and WB feinting but not throwing anything.

Same thing happened in the Diaz-Silva fight. I know I thought leading up to that fight that Diaz's slow plodding pressure was tailor made for Silva, and we were going to witness a severe beatdown. Instead, Diaz (wisely) chose not to play into that, and you had two guys who refused to engage, neither wanting to lead = boring fight.

 

[CerebralKnievel]

His mind was aswarm with the state of racism today. Couldn't focus.

 

[gevoudane]

Two of the best fighters are usually going to cancel each other out. And both fighters were fighting to not lose.

 

[Vikassi]

yea, thats right, this is probably why. Tyron can bang man.

 

[Schoolboy Q]

Thompson respects Tyron's power, he nearly got KO'd in the first fight.

 

[Universal Champion]

He didn't want his face re-arranged again.

 

[SKITZADACTYL]

well if he unleashed on woodley right from the start and beat the shit out of him, he would have been racist. so good guy thompson didnt be racist.

you may say that not being racist, ultimately lead to wonderboy not winning the title.

 

[nephel]

Wonderboy was concerned about Woodley's power. Normally, he'd deal with that with kicks, but with Woodley he also has to worry about the take down. The result was that Wonderboy wanted to play counter puncher and minimize his risk by attacking when Woodley was already committed to a slipped punch.

Woodley was concerned with Wonderboy's kicks and didn't want to lead because overcommitting to a punch is a great way to get kicked in the head by Wonderboy. It's also a good way to get check-kicked in the body coming forward. So he didn't want to lead and wanted to play counter puncher too.

The result was that they spent 45 minutes staring at each other like freshmen at a high school dance awkwardly trying to work up the nerve to ask each other to dance.

 

[marwash]

He didnt want that black man to explode on him.

 

[DragRacer]

Scared to get charged with a hate crime

 

[Flokk]

What does Wonderboy know that viewers don't?

 

[Megatronlee]

He was shook